MENASource

Top News: Pentagon Signals Need For Ground Troops in Iraq; Congress largely Backs Plan

By MENASource

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, raised the possibility on Tuesday that US troops might need to take on a larger role in Iraq’s ground war against Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants. The General explained that there was no intention to place military advisers on the […]

Top News: Salafi Watan Party Withdraws from Pro-Morsi Alliance

By EgyptSource

The Salafi Watan Party announced it is withdrawing from the pro-Morsi National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL), in a statement posted on its official Facebook page. 

EconSource: Tunisia Must Show ‘Audacity’ in Reforms– World Bank Report

By EconSource

Follow the latest in economic news and developments  about the Arab transition countries 

Fighting the Islamic State in Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has shared with the world his deep concern over publicly stated US intentions to attack Islamic State positions in Syria “without interaction with the Syrian government.”

Indirect Repression: When Reason is Eliminated

By Amr Hamzawy

The Egyptian regime is currently ruling the country via strategies of increased repression, which is exercised both directly and indirectly. This is seen in its attempts to improve the economic and social conditions in the country, and in its populist rhetoric based on the myth of the “saving hero,” and the reinstatement of autocracy as […]

Top News: Muslim Brotherhood Leader Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder and Inciting Violence

By MENASource

The Giza Criminal Court sentenced on Monday Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and fourteen others to life in prison for murder and inciting violence. The fifteen defendants were tried for violence, which occurred following the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in Giza’s Bahr al-Azam neighborhood on July 15, 2013. Violent clashes broke […]

Are We Giving ISIS Too Much Credit?

Ramzy Mardini, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, recently wrote in The Washington Post about the possibility of the Obama administration’s overestimation of the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). It’s an interesting question.

We Can’t Destroy ISIS Without Destroying Bashar al Assad First

By Frederic C. Hof

On Wednesday evening, President Obama took 14 minutes to articulate, in clear and persuasive language, a counter-terrorism strategy “to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”

Egypt’s Role in Libya: Lessons Learned from Iraq

By Nader Bakkar

Taking an in-depth look at what role Egypt can play in the current crisis in Libya reveals that a full military intervention, a limited military incursion, or a ‘surgical operation,’ are wrought with negative repercussions. But what of a collective Arab or international military intervention?  What of an indirect intervention to provide intelligence or logistical assistance […]